Do patients respond better in updated treatment centers or hospital rooms?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/health/views/16chen.html?src=me&ref=health
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
A New Look At Cancer Treatment
Below is an article I found on the internet showcasing a new possible treatment for cancer:
Cancer research continues to yield exciting breakthroughs as scientists learn more about the molecular and biological activity of cancer cells.
One important new area of research is called autophagy. Haven't heard of it? You will. Here is a simplified explanation. When cancer cells are mired deep in the core of a tumor, they have limited access to oxygen, growth factors and nutrients from the blood vessels that feed the tumor. So when things get tough for cancer cells, the start eating themselves to get what they need to survive. This is autophagy.
Normal cells rely on autophagy to maintain a balance or during times of stress. Cancer cells do too, not just to survive in the inhospitable environment of a tumor, but also to ward off the effects of chemotherapy and radiation.
When autophagy is activated, (when the "self-cannibalism" begins) it is "an intrinsic cell-survival mechanism that cancer cells turn on to recoup essential building blocks when they're being poisoned or irradiated," according to Dr. John Cleveland of The Scripps Research Institute.
Therefore, a greater understanding autophagy's role in cancer has led researchers to investigate whether blocking autophagy can make cancer treatments more effective, cutting off what amounts to an important escape route.
The research is in early stages and there may be substantial differences in the autophagy activity in different cancer types, or even from tumor to tumor. Still, according to Dr. Ravi Amaravadi from the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, the available evidence suggests that autophagy "seems to be a process that could be important in many cancers."
A number of clinical trials testing autophagy inhibition are actively recruiting patients with a variety of cancers, including breast, colorectal, myeloma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. They are testing an off-patent drug called hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ. The largest trial to date involving HCQ is for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme, a brain cancer. There is also a Phase I/II trial testing authophagy inhibition in patients with stage II or III pancreatic cancer.
The September 7 issue of the National Cancer Institute Bulletin contains the complete article from which this summary is drawn. To dig deeper, consult the American Society of Clinical Oncology's work in this area.
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs044/1103192011442/archive/1103732946090.html
Cancer research continues to yield exciting breakthroughs as scientists learn more about the molecular and biological activity of cancer cells.
One important new area of research is called autophagy. Haven't heard of it? You will. Here is a simplified explanation. When cancer cells are mired deep in the core of a tumor, they have limited access to oxygen, growth factors and nutrients from the blood vessels that feed the tumor. So when things get tough for cancer cells, the start eating themselves to get what they need to survive. This is autophagy.
Normal cells rely on autophagy to maintain a balance or during times of stress. Cancer cells do too, not just to survive in the inhospitable environment of a tumor, but also to ward off the effects of chemotherapy and radiation.
When autophagy is activated, (when the "self-cannibalism" begins) it is "an intrinsic cell-survival mechanism that cancer cells turn on to recoup essential building blocks when they're being poisoned or irradiated," according to Dr. John Cleveland of The Scripps Research Institute.
Therefore, a greater understanding autophagy's role in cancer has led researchers to investigate whether blocking autophagy can make cancer treatments more effective, cutting off what amounts to an important escape route.
The research is in early stages and there may be substantial differences in the autophagy activity in different cancer types, or even from tumor to tumor. Still, according to Dr. Ravi Amaravadi from the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, the available evidence suggests that autophagy "seems to be a process that could be important in many cancers."
A number of clinical trials testing autophagy inhibition are actively recruiting patients with a variety of cancers, including breast, colorectal, myeloma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. They are testing an off-patent drug called hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ. The largest trial to date involving HCQ is for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme, a brain cancer. There is also a Phase I/II trial testing authophagy inhibition in patients with stage II or III pancreatic cancer.
The September 7 issue of the National Cancer Institute Bulletin contains the complete article from which this summary is drawn. To dig deeper, consult the American Society of Clinical Oncology's work in this area.
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs044/1103192011442/archive/1103732946090.html
Monday, November 1, 2010
Surviving & Thriving: Life With Cancer
Surviving & Thriving: Life With Cancer is hosted by Kevin Begos, CR's podcast correspondent, and Kim Thiboldeaux, the president and CEO of The Wellness Community.
Download a podcast by clicking on the link below
http://www.crmagazine.org/archive/Crpodcasts/Pages/SurvivingThriving.aspx
Download a podcast by clicking on the link below
http://www.crmagazine.org/archive/Crpodcasts/Pages/SurvivingThriving.aspx
Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
Report indicates pancreatic spread is slow going...
"A principal finding is that pancreatic tumors are not aggressive cancers. To the contrary, they grow slowly, taking an average of 21 years to become fatal. This creates an opportunity for detecting and removing the cancers at an early stage. At present they are diagnosed far too late, when a patient has on average only two more years to live and the cancer has already spread from the pancreas to other tissues."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/health/28cancer.html?_r=4
"A principal finding is that pancreatic tumors are not aggressive cancers. To the contrary, they grow slowly, taking an average of 21 years to become fatal. This creates an opportunity for detecting and removing the cancers at an early stage. At present they are diagnosed far too late, when a patient has on average only two more years to live and the cancer has already spread from the pancreas to other tissues."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/health/28cancer.html?_r=4
Thursday, October 14, 2010
AJCC Cancer Staging Quick Charts
This page lists downloads of various sites illustrating AJCC staging:
http://www.cancerstaging.org/staging/index.html
http://www.cancerstaging.org/staging/index.html
Monday, October 11, 2010
Skin Cancer Google Book Online
Skin cancer: an illustrated guide to the aetiology, clinical features
Sunday, October 3, 2010
From the CoC Flash
On Monday, October 4, 2010 the Commission on Cancer (CoC) will officially launch the new CAnswer Forum to replace the Inquiry and Response System. The Inquiry and Response System will remain accessible as a view only resource so that users can continue to research previously submitted questions and answers. The shift to this new platform will provide an opportunity for the user community to become more engaged in, and participate in a dialogue about how they interpret and use the data standards to abstract cancer cases, and how they interpret and use the cancer program standards to support accreditation. Thus the new system will allow for knowledge sharing among the user community working with data and cancer program standards on a daily basis.
The CAnswer Forum is a web-based and robust virtual bulletin board accessible to all cancer care professionals. The new format includes specific forums for discussion on all relevant topics such as American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM staging, CoC Cancer Program Standards, Collaborative Stage (CS), Facility Oncology Registry Data Standards (FORDS), National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) Quality Tools, Multiple Primary/Histology (MP/H), ICD-0, Hematopoietic disease, and related topics. The user community can post questions to various forums as well as answer questions that others may have posted, thus serving as a resource available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The exceptions to this community-based system include the Collaborative Stage Forum inquires which will be answered by the Collaborative Stage Technical Advisory Panel (CTAP) and the Multiple Primary/Histology (MP/H), ICD-0, and hematopoietic inquires which will be answered by a panel from SEER.
All participants will be required to complete a one-time registration within the new CAnswer Forum and create a user ID and password (if you are a CoC Data links user, you may want to use the same password). To register please go to the following link, h:ttp://cancerbulletin.facs.org/forums/ and become an active participant in this new virtual environment by sharing your knowledge and lending your expertise to support the cancer care community.
Once you register and navigate to the home page in the system you will notice a host of supportive and instructional information. Click on “help” and the system will bring you to the FAQ documents where you will find everything you need to know about how to use the system, e.g. General Forum Use, Settings and Profile features, and Reading and Posting questions. Don’t miss the resource section where you can access the former Inquiry and Response System. Additional resources will be posted here in the near future and the Forum Calendars where educational program dates are posted.
We invite you to access the new CAnswer Forum today!
If you have any questions regarding the CAnswer Forum, please email CAnswerforum@facs.org
The CAnswer Forum is a web-based and robust virtual bulletin board accessible to all cancer care professionals. The new format includes specific forums for discussion on all relevant topics such as American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM staging, CoC Cancer Program Standards, Collaborative Stage (CS), Facility Oncology Registry Data Standards (FORDS), National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) Quality Tools, Multiple Primary/Histology (MP/H), ICD-0, Hematopoietic disease, and related topics. The user community can post questions to various forums as well as answer questions that others may have posted, thus serving as a resource available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The exceptions to this community-based system include the Collaborative Stage Forum inquires which will be answered by the Collaborative Stage Technical Advisory Panel (CTAP) and the Multiple Primary/Histology (MP/H), ICD-0, and hematopoietic inquires which will be answered by a panel from SEER.
All participants will be required to complete a one-time registration within the new CAnswer Forum and create a user ID and password (if you are a CoC Data links user, you may want to use the same password). To register please go to the following link, h:ttp://cancerbulletin.facs.org/forums/ and become an active participant in this new virtual environment by sharing your knowledge and lending your expertise to support the cancer care community.
Once you register and navigate to the home page in the system you will notice a host of supportive and instructional information. Click on “help” and the system will bring you to the FAQ documents where you will find everything you need to know about how to use the system, e.g. General Forum Use, Settings and Profile features, and Reading and Posting questions. Don’t miss the resource section where you can access the former Inquiry and Response System. Additional resources will be posted here in the near future and the Forum Calendars where educational program dates are posted.
We invite you to access the new CAnswer Forum today!
If you have any questions regarding the CAnswer Forum, please email CAnswerforum@facs.org
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